Fire Emblem 8, The Sacred Stones: Odd Edition
by Spoony Musician
Summary: A novelization of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, with a bit of oddity mixed in, though not quite in a random stupidity way. Rated T purely for safety.


Disclaimer: I don't own Nintendo, nor do I own the Fire Emblem series. Yet.

Disclaimer for readers: This is a novelization of Fire Emblem 8, or Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the second Fire Emblem game to be released on American shores. However, it does not follow the game exactly. Please don't review/e-mail bomb me with complaints about how my novelization isn't quite like the game. It follows the storyline, I just tweak the personalities of the more boring characters a bit. You have been warned. It may deviate even further from the story later on in "Gaiden" chapters, but for now, it will mainly follow the storyline.

--+--

_In an age long past..._

_evil flooded over the land._

_Creatures awash in the dark tide ran wild, _

_pushing mankind to the brink of annihilation._

_In its despair, mankind_

_appealed to the heavens, and_

_from a blinding light came hope._

_The Sacred Stones._

_These five glorious treasures held the power to_

_dispel evil._

_The hero Grado and his warriors_

_used the sacred stones to combat_

_evil's darkness. They defeated_

_the Demon King and sealed_

_his soul within the stones._

_With the darkness inprisoned, peace_

_returned to Magvel._

_But this peace would not last long..._

-

_The continent of Magvel._

_For some 800 years, a quiet peace reigned in the absence of the terrible darkness._

_The Sacred Stones have been passed from generation to generation._

_Nations have been built around their power and their legacy._

_The kingdom of Renais, ruled by Fado, the peerless Warrior King._

_The kingdom of Frelia, ruled by Hayden, the venerable Sage King._

_The kingdom of Jehanna, ruled by Ismaire, Queen of the White Dunes._

_The theocracy of Rausten, ruled by Mansel, the Divine Emperor._

_The Grado Empire, ruled by Vigard, the stalwart Silent Emperor._

_These five countries house the power of the Sacred Stones._

_They are joined by the emerging mercantile republic of Carcino._

_It is now the year 803..._

_In an instant, the whole of Magvel is threatened by an unexpected atrocity._

_The Grado Empire, the largest of the Sacred Stone nations, has invaded the kingdom of Renais under orders from emperor Vigarde._

_A long-time ally of Grado, Renais is caught off guard, unable to mount any resistance._

_Grado's forces move quickly, seizing one territory after another._

_Compounding King Fado's worries, his son, Prince Ephraim, has gone missing._

_Grado's momentum carries its armies to the gates of Castle Renais itself._

_Renais will fall...it is inevitable._

Whoo...quite a mouthful, wouldn't you say?

Oh, I must have lost my manners somewhere. I'm your narrator. I'm not important. In fact, I don't even exist. I may exert my opinion on the events following the chronicle of dear Magvel, so please do not be alarmed if I do so.

It all started at the watch. The lazy, boring watch. The summer was hot, and it was nearly 5 'o clock PM, so every soldier was definitely sweating within his plate armor encasing, a cage of sorts. But all that was forgotten in an instant when the tiniest amount of movement was spotted on the horizon. A spear tip. Then two. Then shafts, and finally heads. Hundreds of red-helmeted heads, moving up the hill toward Castle Renais. It was quite an alarming sight, to be sure. And who would be selected to run to the king but Arthur. Arthur, a polite man, looked the exact same as all the other soldiers in his pale blue plate armor and his helmet that covered the upper half of his face, but underneath the armor, he was a man, just like the rest of them. A commoner, but a man nonetheless. And a very panicked one at the moment.

As he sprinted into the throne room of the castle, Arthur was already going over the words he would use to inform the king of the coming crisis. He surveyed the throne room as he approached the throne itself, seeing who resided within. On the throne was King Fado, the ruler himself. He was known to be a brave man, very accepting, and exceptionally kind to his citizens, though he seemed to dote on his daughter a bit. He was a large man, measuring in the upper part of five feet, possibly ten inches above, with a fairly large build, but not to the degree of any axefighter. His hair was a dark turquoise, matching that of his son, which we certainly won't see for a while. He had a matching beard, short, but not exceedingly so. His eyes reflected his innermost thoughts as he sat on his grandeur chair, in a very classic "Thinking Man" pose, his head held up by one arm, the elbow of which rested on his knee.

Standing next to the king was his daughter, Eirika. Eirika Renais was a famous name throughout the citizenry...especially the men, whose wives most certainly did NOT appreciate their ogling of her when she passed by. She was the very object of grace, seeming to stand upon a cloud just barely daintily touching the ground. Every teenaged noble in Renais wished to court her, though none found the courage to come before her doting, and rather protective father and ask. She did have one "flaw", per se, though. When she was talking to someone, serious or not, half of what she said was often not heard. Or rather, what she meant to say. The princess had a rather short attention span, preferring to change topics faster than a thief takes a gold coin than remain on one. Perhaps an example of her manner of speech would be, "I am glad to speak to you today. I would like to inform you that...are those jellied hams? I love jellied ham!" After the aforementionsed sentence was uttered, she would rather quickly make her way to the table, taking a sampling of such jellied ham. And more often than not, finding it disgusting.

Next to the princess was her guardian, Seth. Oh, Lord. When the princess or prince were around, he was the very model of politeness, charm, and loyalty. His hair was combed perfectly, to the strand, and his armor was polished to perfection, until any viewer could see their own face within it. But this perfect guardian had quite the secret up his sleeve. For you see, this man was not raised as a noble. He worked up the courage to ask to be a recruit at the offices at age thirteen, and due to his exceptional potential, though not so much his upbringing, he was grudgingly accepted. But he had to be educated in how to act. And his educators seemed to have done quite a good job, except...when the man so felt it, he was almost a completely different person. You see, back in his youth, when his parents died of sickness when he was only eight, he had to find some way to survive. He didn't exactly live in the sterling part of the capital city, but rather, turned to the alleys. The knaves in there had always taken a liking of him, and when he came bawling to their "doorstep", how could they resist? His childhood, from eight to thirteen, was as a thief. And he was damn good at what he did.

But as Seth was educated in how to properly act, he seemed to do well. He _did_ do well. For the most part. But when there was no figure of nobility in sight, none of the knights who looked up to him as their captain, and neither the prince nor the princess who depended on him to guard them, the man became completely different. He would duck within an empty building, first removing his armor, piece by piece, and hiding it painstakingly somewhere it would never be found. Under his armor, heat be damned, was a mantle with a high collar that encircled the man, from neck to calf. Seth would rough up his hair, and a sly smile would slowly creep up his normally stone serious face. His ramrod posture would slowly slouch, and a dagger would be removed from a sheath within the cloak. Who was Seth, knight captain of Renais? He was Seth, commoner and thief. And he liked it that way. At least, until he had his fun, and was forced to "transform" back into the known Seth. Only the soldiers at the moment knew of this, and they knew that if anyone else figured it out, the soldier that loosed the information would wake up to find a rather angry thief holding a sharp dagger at their throat.

And with that lengthy introduction to only three of the players in the grand play of Magvel, we begin our story. Arthur's throat was already closing from nervousness, but he knew now was no time to be shy. There was a crisis at hand! Taking a deep breath, the man began to speak. "Your Majesty, I bear bad news." The words were perfectly enounciated and calm, just as he was taught. He sounded more like the tea boiled over too fast than an enemy army was approaching. "The castle gate has been breached. Emperor Vigarde's forces are within the castle walls." Arthur was already sweating from the terrible summer heat, but the nervousness lent itself to even more.

Fado turned, and anyone could see it took all he had to remain collected. "I understand." The simple phrase had to be squeezed out of his mouth, almost painfully, to avoid losing his composure.

Arthur cleared his throat again. "The garrison has fallen. We've lost contact with Prince Ephraim and can expect no aid from his men. Your Majesty, what are we to do?" There was more than a hint of desperation in the soldier's voice as he pleaded to his king.

"...What else can we do? Order your men to lay down their arms." Fado had to punch every word out of him, as much as he wanted to fight Grado's forces, he knew it would be better for the citizens if he surrendered. There would be no unexpected bloodshed, at least. The princess, who had listened to...half of this conversation suddenly stood up, facing her father.

"Father..." She couldn't think of any more words to say about the situation. In a time like this, she had a somewhat better attention span, but it was only increased from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Fado sighed. "Eirika. Are you wearing the bracelet I gave you?" He knew its importance, and its safety was almost as crucial as hers, his darling daughter, to him.

Eirika thought this was no time for vanity, but...she answered nonetheless. "Yes, I have it right here." She glanced at her wrist, where a lovely golden bracelet, inset with a gem, red as the sunset.

"Good," came the reply. Another terse call, "Seth." The man he thought he could trust with his daughter's life. Oh, how ignorant he was.

The captain, dutiful as ever, stepped slightly in front of Eirika. "Yes, your majesty?" He was as calm as ever, even when the king was beginning to have a panicked tone in his voice.

"Take Eirika and head for Frelia. King Hayden is an honorable man. I trust he will keep you safe." Fado knew he wouldn't be here much longer, and Frelia had the most revered defense system in all of Magvel, so he thought it fitting to send his daughter there. Unfortunately, as he gave the two of them their permission forms from a nearby drawer, he had no clue he was also giving a (rather bloodthirsty) thief passes into the most well-guarded city in the world.

Seth wasted no time with his dutiful answer. "Understood. And what of Your Majesty?" Always wonder about the fate of your lord, section 7.54 of the Knight's Handbook, paragraph 3, title sentence.

"Me? I shall remain here. We have long held Grado among our dearest allies, yet now they attack? I must know why. Am I somehow responsible for this? Have I erred in my leadership? Renais is mine to guide...how could I have failed her so?" Unfortunately, the King would never find out this information. That comes later in this absolutely _scintillating_ novel here. If one looked very closely, a single tear formed in Fado's eye, but he quickly wiped it away.

Eirika, though her tastes changed rapidly, had always loved her father, and didn't want him to meet an untimely fate. "Father, you can't stay! You mustn't! If you remain here, so shall I!" Her high voice rang through the castle, echoing her declaration of martyrdom.

...Which was soon to be shot down by her darling father. "Go now, Seth! Ride! Take her to safety!"

And with that, the knight grabbed the princess and rode off, with one final shrill call of, "Father!" Seth whispered in her ear, his breath smelling slightly of the mint plant, as all soldiers were instructed to chew before speaking to nobility to disguise their breath, "Forgive me, princess." As the two rode out of the castle on Seth's lovely, underused steed, and magicians and generals began pouring into the castle, Fado muttered under his breath, "Eirika, Ephraim...you must survive."

Fast forward a few minutes until we reach outside, where Seth allowed the princess gently to the ground, and spoke to a younger knight, blonde, he looked about fifteen or sixteen. "Franz, ride ahead and bring word of our coming to Frelia. A single rider has better odds of passing unseen by Grado's men. Convey to the throne all that has happened and petition for reinforcements." Without a word, the young knight sped off. Franz had a few quirks as well, but those will be discussed later, when they become apparent. Until then, shall we just pretend he's normal? Yes, that sounds good.

Seth turned to the princess, his eyes quickly snapping to her face to keep himself (and some of his more roguish insticts) from staring at anything other than her face. "Princess Eirika, we must-- Quickly! Behind me!" The man grabbed the princess and threw her behind him, out of danger, caring not where he grabbed her. Unfortunately, out of thief's instinct, he had grabbed a place that, suffice to say, most girls don't like to be touched in, eliciting a scream.

Thankfully, though, she was thrown behind him just in time, as three men, two generic soldiers and who appeared to be a general, landed on the ground with a collective thud on massive wyverns. The leader of the three had long, messy, and grasy blue-ish hair, a stark contrast to the knight's clean, well-kept red-brown, or the princess's bright teal. The man opened his mouth, his deformed-looking face seeming to grin consantly as he did so. "You there, with the girl. Tell me, would that be the wayward princess of Renais? Well, this must be my lucky day. You're a dead man. The wench goes with me." His tone seemed to rise and fall as he spoke, giving him much more of a creepy presence than he would without.

Seth spread his arms, making himself into a barrier in front of the princess, breaking his knights' oath for just a moment with an extremely emotional, "Never!" The man's wyvern took to the air and landed right in front of Seth and his horse. The man laughed wildly. "I am Valter, the Moonstone, Grado's finest general! And you're just a corpse who does not know he is dead." Seth began with a running slash at the man, who easily dodged, taking to the air in a much more wanton way than any other wyvern rider Seth had ever observed and diving down with extreme, brutal force on Seth, creating a huge gash down his arm and tearing the chain mail.

The knight let his breath out sharply, concentrating on routing the pain away from him. But as the terrible wyvern and its insane rider moved ever closer to him, he grabbed the princess, in a proper way this time, wincing as his wounded arm moved, and sped off, away from the castle. As he left, Valter chuckled to himself. "Such terrible wounds, and yet he holds to his duty? How entertaining. Fly away, little man. Fly away. Try to outrun death. More time to savor the hunt...and the kill." The general laughed insanely to himself.

Cut to a meadow fairly nearby. Seth let out a sigh of relief as he let the princess walk, releasing the pressure on his arm, always dutiful. "Princess Eirika! This way! I can see no more of Grado's men. If we've made it this far, surely earned a moment's rest. Please forgive my grabbing you so...brusquely earlier." If she found out, he would have to kill her. And his sworn duty was to protect her. What a dilemma.

The princess's sweet voice answered him. "Don't be foolish, Seth. If it weren't for you, I would never have made it out of the castle. You are the reason I'm still alive. You have my gratitude." The knight's heart skipped a beat at that, but then went right back to duty. Eirika continued, "And whoever that man was, he was clearly after me...it's my fault that you received such a grave wound. Allow me to treat it, I--"

Seth interrupted. Rude, but neccessary. "Your Highness, I can't allow an injury like this to be an obstacle. We have more important matters to attend to. We must press on to Frelia. We must fulfill His Majesty's wishes." He tried to ignore his bloodied arm, but the pain was constantly searing through him.

"I wonder how my father is doing by himself in the castle. And what of Ephraim, as well?" Eirika's curious tone obviously showed her innocence. She had no idea what war was like.

The other, less polite and protective part of Seth wanted to roll his eyes and let loose with a sarcastic remark or three in the princess's direction, but he couldn't allow himself to be like that. At least, not now. "King Fado and Prince Ephraim are both valiant and brave men. I doubt even the might of the Grado Empire can hold them in check. More important to me, Your Highness, is that you look to your own safety. How sad the two of them would be if something were to happen to you. We must reach Frelia to ensure the day of your happy reunion." Wow, he just turned all of his sarcastic retorts into polite urgances. He had no idea he could do that.

"Yes, of course. You're right," came the princess's voice. Yes, of course he was right. "Until I'm reunited with my father and brother, I must not despair. Come, Seth. Let us go." And with that, the knight rode off toward a nearby bridge in the grassy meadow.

"Once we cross that bridge, we will be in Frelia, near Border Mulan. Let us proceed, Princess Eirika." The princess walked to him, hope in her eyes. "Your Highness, I won't lie to you. This will not be an easy ride. Please, take this rapier. If something should happen to me, you must continue to Frelia, alone if need be." He handed the princess a thin sword, more for stabbing than slashing, more befitting of a noble than a simple sword. Unfortunately, as they were crossing the bridge, a voice could be heard behind them.

"You there! Renais dogs! Where do you think you're going?" The man was large, along the lines of six feet, and carried an axe. He was joined by two other axe fighters, both just as large. They could be smelled from a mile away, with their terrible hygeine. They had probably not taken a bath since they were babies. Seth rolled his eyes when the princess looked away. "Grado's men...stand back, Princess Eirika."

The princess took a step forward. "It's alright, Seth. My brother has taught me something of swordplay." Seth rolled his eyes yet again. _Why do you think I gave you a sword, dim-wit?_ "I will stand with you." It was a rare moment where the princess showed some kind of spine, though, and Seth didn't want to ruin it. The valley ahead was very thin, and blocked on one end by axefighters. So what better tactic to use than to block the other end with the two of them? The princess wasn't exactly the most strong of people, but as she used a sword, she could hold her own against axe-fighters. Probably.

With Seth's wound, he couldn't do all the work, and wished the Princess luck as he, blood running from his mouth caused by a hit there by an axe handle, dueled with one axe fighter. The man eventually fell to the ground, however, as Seth's steel had taken down many bandits before. And townspeople, but we've covered that already.

The princess was not so lucky. Having been slashed across her cheek, the noblewoman used her rapier with perfect form, swishing and thrusting. This was not enough to fell the bandit in one hit, though, or even two. This took three hits, and by then, the poor princess was exhausted. She wasn't used to this "work" thing!

However, the knave did fall, and Seth called to the princess from the valley, "All that's left is their leader!" Eirika took this as an opportunity to go forward and prove herself to Seth, as she applied Vulnerary to her cheek to seal up the wound and approached the man.

"What's that? You think you can take me, you wretched lordling? Come! It's time you high-and-mighty knights learned to respect a true warrior!" THe man roared as he ran toward the princess, axe in hand. Seth winced, feeling for sure that his liege wouldn't stand a chance against the rathe rhardened fighter. But he watched as she danced around him first, rapier in hand, then suddenly came into position and stabbed much harder than she had the first axefighter, felling the man in one blow. Seth's eyes widened as he rode nearer.

"Princess, are you injured?" Seth removed a vulnerary from his pack, preparing to use it on Her Highness. She replied with a cheery, "What? Oh, no. I'm fine, Seth!" He was already in worrying mode, why stop it? "But you look so pale..."

She frowned. "I'm fine...fine. This is...war, isn't it? It's not like all the games I used to play with my brother or Lyon." _Gee, you think? You ARE the very model of intelligence._ Seth was both amused and frightened at how cruel his mind could be. "I never thought-- I didn't know it would be this...savage. Are words useless? Is strength all that matters? It's so sad...Why would the grado Empire do this? To what end would they start a war?"

Seth rolled his eyes yet again. He had never spoken to the princess so much in his life, and it was just his luck that he was more in the mood to be a thief than a knight. He forced himself to be polite again. "Princess..." He dared not say more, for fear of letting sarcasm through, but instead placed his unwounded hand on hers.

"...Don't worry, Seth. I won't give in to sorrow. Let's get moving. I'm not broken, and I won't stop until I see Renais restored. I won't stop until I'm reunited with my father and brother." And with that sadly untrue statement, the princess began to walk off toward the bridge. Seth hurriedly followed, hoping there was at least one house at Border Mulan. Surely during the commotion of battle he could sneak off and steal something. Surely...

--+--

And with that, this ends the prologue of the story. I'm sure this leaves a taste in your mouth of what is to come, good or bad. And this is where the lovely review feature comes in. Tell me what you think, please! I appreciate constructive criticism and praise to help me improve my writing, but be aware, I dislike "Good story, keep writing" types of praise with no substance as much as blind flaming, so I humbly request that if you don't have a specific thing to comment on, negatively or positively, please do not click that review button. That being said, I will update with chapter 1...probably sometime within the next few days. I am on vacation, you see, and I have to crouch in a very uncomfortable corner in order to get Internet access, so I spend a good deal of my time writing.

Now think of something to say, and click that review button!

The Spoony Musician


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